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Bank of America announced it will sever its association with companies that provide prisoner and immigrant detention services at both the state and federal levels.  

A Bank of America spokesperson explained in a statement Wednesday that it informed its clients that provide detention services that it will cut ties, arguing the disassociation from companies that detain immigrants addresses the bank’s employee and community’s concerns.

“We have decided to exit the relationships we have with companies providing prisoner and immigrant detention services for federal and state governments, as expeditiously as possible,” a Bank of America spokesperson said in a statement.

Bank of America appreciates “steps they have taken to properly execute their contractual and humanitarian responsibilities, but it ultimately decided to “exit the relationship,” the spokesperson said. “Lacking further legal and policy clarity, and in recognition of the concerns of our employees and stakeholders in the communities we serve, it is our intention to exit these relationships.”

The second-largest bank in the United States had been reportedly “discussing the issue for some time,” but settled on the decision after meeting with its internal Hispanic and black leaders and reviewing the policy through its environmental, social and governance committee.

The spokesperson did not specify which companies its new policy would apply.  

JPMorgan Chase announced in March that it would stop funding private prison operators amid leftist outrage related to President Trump’s immigration policies.

“JPMorgan Chase has a robust and well-established process to evaluate the sectors that we serve.  As part of this process, we will no longer bank the private prison industry,” a spokesperson for the bank told FOX Business.

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The act of financial blacklisting by banks appears to be the Left’s latest tactic in winning the 2020 presidential election. Banks, payment processors, and social media companies like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have been openly pressured by Democrats to ban and blacklist Republicans and Trump supporters.

Last month, it was revealed through a Project Veritas investigation that Chase Bank was banning popular Conservative activists and journalists. In the undercover video, a Chase Bank employee said the bank tries to not do business with people who lack moral character.

Conservative journalist Laura Loomer who has been banned on every single social media platform said Chase Bank suspended her access to her online bank account in February. Chase Bank also banned Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys.

https://mobile.twitter.com/jamesokeefeiii/status/1118164242677604352

The move is lockstep with the Democrat Party’s stance on illegal immigration. Competing for who can attack the idea of borders most aggressively, top Democrats have urged bank executives to back away from the private detention business.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is demanding private prisons and detention facilities be banned and vows to implement the ban upon winning the 2020 presidential election.

The Massachusetts senator unveiled her plan in op-ed published on Medium Friday, pledging to end all contracts the Federal Bureau of Prisons and Customs Enforcement have with private detention providers.  

The US government has a “a basic responsibility to keep the people in its care safe — not to use their punishment as an opportunity for profit,” she said.

Warren has also called for the repeal of the law that makes unauthorized immigration a crime.

“We should not be criminalizing mamas and babies trying to flee violence at home or trying to build a better future,” she told HuffPost.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose compared the detention of illegal immigrants to concentration camps, celebrated Bank of America’s decision to stop funding operators of detention centers.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi argued Thursday every person who enters the U.S. illegally has rights and every illegal immigrant should be permitted to overstay their visas or commit status violations.

“We are trying to make people aware of their rights once they are in our country,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press briefing. “But you just cannot say — and there is a disagreement that anybody coming across the border is breaking the law, not until there has been a determination as to whether they can stay or not.”

Laura Loomer